Budgie Blog 2

Q & A For Your Pet Budgie

Here's a question for our budgie blog:

I love your site. You have such good information. I have a few questions on the budgies. Sunshine has just laid her 1st clutch & only one hatched & it is humungas. Does he just look big because of the new feathers? Sunshine & her spouse live together.

You
mentioned that they should only lay eggs twice in a year for health reasons. How soon could she become a mom again. The baby is 4wks old & the dad is already to get back in action w/ Sunshine. I hate to separate them but I do not want her to be having babies every 60days. What type of gestation period do they have. These are pets & not for sale

Thanks, Ginny

Ginny: Thank you for your comments and question. Congratulations on your new baby budgie. He is probably a little bigger, because being the only one in the nest, he got a good head start by not having to share any meals! At about five weeks, he is getting ready to leave the nest and Sunshine and her mate will most likely begin a new clutch. If they do, you will want to remove the baby, as the mother might attack it.

Place the baby in a cage of his own at this time. He should be eating on his own and you should place its food on the floor of the cage for the first week or so, until it gets used to eating out of a food dish. Also, provide a cuttlebone for the baby, as well as the parents, as it will supply needed calcium.You can find additional information on the budgie page and budgie blogs on my website.

It is recommended that you do not allow them to breed more than two times, or at the most three, for health reasons. Budgies will breed constantly all year round, but if you do not want to separate Sunshine and her mate and I think that would make both of them unhappy, you can remove the eggs from the nest box, after they have been laid. Also, remove the nest box, if you have one. If they are laying on the bare floor, remove those as well. I have a pair of Budgies that do not lay eggs, as I have not provided a nest box. However, some budgies still lay eggs. You did not mention if you had a nest box in their cage.

It sounds like whatever you are doing, you are doing well by your budgies. It is not always easy to get budgies to produce and then raise their young successfully. From what you tell me, Sunshine and her mate are good parents! And, even though you had only one hatch, that is a nice beginning and I am sure you enjoyed the experience.

Best wishes to you and your budgies. Please let me know if I can answer any other questions you may have in the future.

Jill

Hello. I have enjoyed your site.We have two
birds.One is the color of your blue budgie on the side of the bird cage by
its self. Ours is a female. our other one is all yellow,the male. they
just hatched out 4 of the most ugly looking babies. only kidding! she
laid 5 eggs and 4 hatch. we are proud of them. the problem is the female
is attacking the male. she will act like she wants to kiss him and when
he goes to respond she will attack him. she had his feathers flying all
over. so we put the male in another cage. when the babies chirp he
tries to get out. he has found the way to open the little doors on his
cage.so we tied them shut. we fill sorry for him , but she was just tearing
him apart. is this normal? at first he would help feed them . the
babies are about 2 to 3 weeks old.they are getting color to their feathers. Rachel.

Rachel: Hello. Thank you for writing me. You did the right thing by removing the male, as the female budgie is generally the one who feeds and raises the babies and she does not need the male to accomplish this. Male budgies are usually more docile than females, because females have to protect their nest from intruders and sometimes this includes their own mate. They do mate for life, so even though he may feel he should be part of the family, he is better separated from them at this time if she is attacking him.

Most males do not attempt to feed the babies and if he did, she obviously saw this as a threat. Some males do feed their mate while they are raising young, but she will be fine without him in the cage and it would be best for him. The young should be ready to leave the nest box in four to five weeks, but they should be left with the mother for a few days, during which time she will continue to feed them.

Budgies usually hatch one day at a time, so they vary in size between the youngest and oldest, which you are probably aware of. After five or six weeks, the babies can be removed to a separate cage and it would probably be safe to allow the male back into the cage with the female, but make sure to observe them at first. Please visit my website page on
Budgies for more information. Good luck with them and let me know if I can answer any other questions. Thanks for joining our budgie blog.

Jill

We rec. a male Budgie from my kids Pediatrician
almost a year ago...We have had him since he was very young....but he is
and always been very aggressive...I have done as much research as
pos...and have tried everything I could find out but nothing works...he will
come to me only to start biting fingers and or ears...He seems not
like be touched at all other then sitting on a finger or shoulder...at
this point I dont know what to do...we have never had an unfriendly pet in
our house but I am at my wits end...any info would be great...it seems
to be getting worse..today I gently held him in a towel and stroked his
head and neck...after about 5 m inutes I put him back and he held his
wings out and sort of panted for a few minutes...he never did this
before.

Thanks,
Ron

Hello, Ron: I am sorry to hear that your budgie is not as friendly as your other pets. Unfortunately, some birds just never become as tame as we would like them to be. There may be different reasons, including whether he was hand-raised or parent raised, but even that does not always make a difference. I have seen parent raised budgies that are tamer and more sweet than the ones that had been hand-raised. It sounds like you interact with him frequently, so if he is still aggressive, it is possible that it is part of his nature and he may not change.

Check the location of his cage. Some birds are placed in a room that is too busy and they get stressed. You do not mention how he interacts with your children and whether they like him. Some children frighten birds or tease them and then we, as parents, wonder why the bird is so miserable. Sometimes it is not even our own children, but the child's friends. I do not know if this has any relevance to your situation.

Some birds do not like their head and neck scratched and will let you know by biting you. In the case of your budgie, if he enjoys sitting on your finger or shoulder, you may have to accept that this is all he wants. Actually, if he does this, he is a lot tamer than many budgies who will not even do this. In time, perhaps he will grow more trusting, but he may never enjoy being petted. Some of my birds do and some do not and they let me know it! Every bird has a distinct personality and I respect this.

Many birds do not like being wrapped in a towel, as they feel confined and in danger. I never groom my own birds, because often times they will resent the one who grooms them, as they have to be wrapped in a towel in order to cut their nails. I know my vet has no hard feelings about this and everyone goes away happy! Birds have very good memories and can hold a grudge for a long time. So patience is important when training birds.

You mentioned you received him from your child's pediatrician. You might ask him how he was raised and whether he had any trauma prior to your receiving him. The reason your budgie raised his wings and panted is due to the fact that they overheat quickly, especially under stress. This is their way of sweating and it is similar to a dog panting.

If he never becomes a cuddly bird, you can still enjoy him. Provide him with lots of toys and watch his antics as he plays with them, as most budgies are quite playful. It sounds like you have done everything right and you are justified in your exasperation. However, remember most budgies can live 10 years or more, so if you decide he is not suited to be a part of your family, do try to find him a good home. Never release a budgie into the wild, because they rarely survive on their own. I wish you the best of luck and I hope this provides you with some information that can be helpful. Thank you for your question to our budgie blog.